DAMASCUS, Syria A team of Syrian and French archaeologists has discovered a Neolithic temple in northern Syria that could be the oldest in the Middle East, Syrias official news agency reported Saturday.

The discovery of the temple, dating to the ninth millennium B.C. during the Neolithic Age, was made by a joint Syrian-French archaeological team at Jaadet al-Maghara on the Euphrates river some 450 kilometers (270 miles) north of Damascus, the agency said. It did not say when the temple was unearthed.

Objects made of stone and bone instruments were found in the large temple, whose walls bore geometric designs and a drawing of a bulls head in vivid red, black and white colors  further evidence that bulls where worshipped in that period, the report said.

The agency quoted Syrias minister of culture, Riyad Neisan Agha, as saying that "this is a unique discovery that could lead to re-reading culture."

Fuente: The Associated Press / The International Herald Tribune, 30 de septiembre de 2006Enlace: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/30/africa/ME_GEN_Syria_Temple.php

(1) Syrian workers clean the area around the bucrania (bull head), discovered at Al Djada, East Aleppo city, northern Syria October 2, 2006. After fifteen years of excavations on the bank of Euphrates rives, under the direction of Eric Coqueugniot, the French archaeological mission at Djada found some walls which bore symbols of a bull head and are decorated with polychrome geometric paintings. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA)

(2) A French archaeology student shows a female figurine discovered at Al Djada, East Aleppo city, northern Syria October 2, 2006. After fifteen years of excavations on the bank of Euphrates rives, under direction of Eric Coqueugniot, the French archaeological mission at Djada found some walls which bore symbols of a bull head and are decorated with polychrome geometric paintings. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA)

(3) Eric Coqueugniot, leader of the French archaelogical mission, looks at the area around the bucrania (bull head), discovered at Al Djada, East Aleppo city, northern Syria October 2, 2006. After fifteen years of excavations on the bank of Euphrates rives, under direction of Eric Coqueugniot, the French archaeological mission at Djada found some walls which bore symbols of a bull head and are decorated with polychrome geometric paintings. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA)

(4) Eric Coqueugniot, leader of the French archaelogical mission, shows flint tools which were discovered during the excavation of the bucrania (bull head) at Al Djada, East Aleppo city, northern Syria October 2, 2006. After fifteen years of excavations on the bank of Euphrates rives, under direction of Coqueugniot, the French archaeological mission at Djada found some walls which bore symbols of a bull head and are decorated with polychrome geometric paintings. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA)